


you could never understand

by Rambler262



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Child Abuse, Childhood, F/F, Gen, Neglect, Unhealthy Relationships, for the angst I intend to write I will include the antidote, kind of flashbacks, or at least hopeful, there will be a happy ending people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 19:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17751875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rambler262/pseuds/Rambler262
Summary: Zuko wants to move Azula from the hospital she's being kept in, he invites Team Avatar to discuss it. It is left to Mai to explain the complexities of Azula, Ty Lee, and their shared childhoods and their romance...orlittle bit of a Ty Lee character study, an expansion on the AzulaxTy Lee dynamic in their childhoods, then into their new relationship as Azula heals.





	you could never understand

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt, still getting the hang of things. The tone and writing style is going to be inconsistent the first few chapters, I can already tell. I'm working out the kinks on how I can tell the story as it exists in my head but its going to be a bit of a bumpy ride. Thanks for sticking with me if you do!

“I don’t think any of you know anything about anything, and your opinions hold no weight here.”

“Mai, we appreciate that she was your friend and that you still feel strongly—“

“This has nothing to do with friendship, Azula was hardly a friend. This is about you and your little team sticking your noses where they have no place. The only people who should be having this conversation are Zuko, Ty Lee, and myself. I can’t believe we’re even listening to this drivel.”

“Zuko! A little help here, please?”

Zuko turned away from the window he’d been leaning against. He looks aged; his life had never been carefree, but the years hunting the Avatar and seeking redemption seem like an extended vacation compared to the last two years. Ruling the Fire Nation and attempting to repair its relationships with the other nations has been exhausting and unrewarding. On more than one occasion Zuko has wondered why he ever worked to restore his royal status.

“It’s not so simple Mai,” Zuko started. “Azula is a complicated. It was enough of a nightmare keeping her from Earth Nation prisons the first time. To move her back to the capitol, back to the palace without consulting or informing anyone could undo months of work and diplomacy.”

“Frankly, I think you’re lucky to even be in this conversation at all Mai. As I remember it, you were right with Azula every step of the way until she attacked Zuko.” Katara had matured in the course of the war, and worked side by side with Aang in rebuilding communities and relationships around the world. She had yet to soften her opinions of the Fire Nation or its most prolific agents. 

“I told you, I could care less about what happens to Azula but this still isn’t a decision for Team Rainbow to be making. I am going to support Zuko’s decision. Why he chose to invite all of you to debate it is beyond me.”

“It’s Team Avatar, thank you very much.”

“And once again, you were a bad guy for like most of the war, pretty sure your opinions don’t carry weight.”  
Aang sprung to his feet before the argument could circle back again, “I think that’s enough of that, guys. I would like to hear more from Zuko about his proposal and Azula. Regardless of the subject, it’s important that we offer our friends counsel in their time of need.”

“Thank you, Aang,” Zuko said. “The fact is that the healers and guards at Mount Lu Ten are struggling with Azula. On the days she’s awake and moving she is violent and barely lucid. More often than not she is basically comatose. The lead healer has suggested that a change of scenery may restore some of her faculties, and bringing her home is the only logical choice, really.”

“Why let her leave at all?” Toph asked. “She was a raving lunatic before, she’s a raving lunatic now! The only real difference is now she’s screaming from a padded cell instead of from a throne. She can’t hurt anyone and not being in a prison cell is the best she should get. It’s definitely more than she deserves.”

Zuko sighed, “For all of Azula’s crimes she is still my sister.

“You know what my father was like, you saw who I was before I… defected. That was after years of traveling with and learning under my uncle. Ozai was a bad father, but he ignored me more than anything else, and my mother compensated for that… Azula was my father’s pride and joy. She bore the full brunt of his attention; he cared about the war and her growth as his heir and protege. She was to be another testament to his abilities. I might have longed for the praise Ozai showered on my sister, but every disappointment and punishment would have been as awful as the praise was great.

“Azula was a monster then, but she was the monster he moulded. And even still, she was little more than a child—still a teenager today! I saw a madness in her eyes during our agni kai, but more than that I saw pain, and a brokenness… I want to offer her a chance at redemption, but she can’t even reject such a chance if she’s not well. We have the resources here to take care of her, and people who actually care about her. We are her best chance.

“I won’t do this if you ask me not to, Aang. But I am asking you to extend to her the mercy you showed my father.”

Aang perched on a window sill with a contemplative look on his face. Ozai and Azula were different kinds of animals after all, and he had taken months to consider how to deal with Ozai. 

In his silence, Katara sought further information from Zuko and Mai, “You said this is conversation for you, Zuko, and Ty Lee—where is Ty Lee anyway? And why should her opinion matter more than ours? Before the Boiling Rock she was just as willing as you to conquer the world and crown Azula.”

“Things change.”

“That’s a pretty significant change.”

“You know nothing.”

“Then tell us! Share with the group the great intricacies and depths of your friendship with a sociopath! Tell me why I should even be bothered to care about some wretched fallen princess—or you and your pink friend for that matter! Second chances don’t come free and your loyalties have proven rather tenuous in the past. If Azula makes a better offer, who’s to say you or Ty Lee won’t turn right back around and burn us.”

“For one, neither Ty Lee or myself can bend so burning would be an unusual choice for us.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant,” Mai heaved one of her signature sighs. She was a spirited as Team Avatar had ever seen her yet she still looked utterly bored.

“First of all, you should have a little more faith in Ty Lee. She is a Kyoshi warrior after all and I would think that requires a great deal of trust.”

“She’s right about that at least Katara, Suki says Ty Lee has been a great addition to the team. She’s been leading special training sessions in basic chi blocking for Kyoshis and locals alike, and she’s been great for moral on field expeditions.” Sokka had been unusually quiet, letting Katara lead the dissent, but he knew he had to offer that his girlfriend was staunchly pro-Ty Lee these days.

“Did I hear my name?” Suki was escorted into the room by a palace servant, “Sorry for the delay, I wanted to get out of my makeup before joining you guys. If this is as serious as you all look I would have come straight here.”

Sokka jumped up from the couch he’d been lounging on to greet her, “Glad you made it here safely! We were just talking about Mai and Ty Lee’s loyalty to Azula and I was telling Katara that if you have faith in Ty Lee then so do I.”

Suki immediately turned defensive, “Who has questions about Ty Lee?”

“No one is attacking her,” Sokka soothed. “We’re just trying to find out more about her and Azula and Mai.”

“I suppose you guys really don’t know the history or the dynamics…” Zuko pondered aloud.

Mai scoffed, “None of you know or can even hope to begin to understand. Not even you Zuko.”

“Then tell us!” Katara nearly screeched, “We are asking you, we are giving you the chance to explain! God forbid you actually talk…”

Mai ignored her in favor of looking to Suki, “Where is Ty Lee? Our letter said to bring her with you.”

Suki cringed, “Ty Lee kind of asked for a break, about two weeks ago. She’d been working nonstop for months, and always picking up extra projects, she seemed strung out. Some vacation sounded like a great idea and I granted her request. Told her to take a few weeks to bum around the beach and flirt with some new people. She’s sent a few messenger hawks with updates on her location but no info on her travel plans. I tried to send word to her to meet me here but I have no way of knowing if anything reached her.”

“Let’s hope she heard and gets here soon. Until then, I would really like an explanation from Mai about why she matters so damn much.”

Mai looked as angry as she ever had, “You make a lot of demands for a Water Tribe peasant.”

“Mai,” Zuko grabbed his fiancé’s hand, “Maybe it really would help them understand if you would just share a little bit, there’s so much they don’t know. So much even I don’t understand about Azula and especially Ty Lee. We can’t make a decision until consulting with Ty Lee anyway and who knows when she’s gonna show up. We have to pass the time somehow…”

Mai considered it, she’s naturally opposed to speaking but especially opposed to something as longwinded as story telling. But then the ragtag group before her seemed to forget all too often how she and her friends had beaten them time and again, they seemed to dismiss that the girls had barely been teenagers when they took Ba Sing Se.They ignore that their trio had tracked and bested Team Avatar when the Fire Nation’s finest had previously failed to. A part of Mai wanted to rub their noses in all of it, wanted to make clear that her trio had not been beaten but dissolved, and but for some unfortunate circumstances they would have ruled the world. 

But some things are better left unsaid, and those things in particular would not help her cause. That same prideful place felt defensive though, of her closest friend. Ty Lee was flawed but she had also saved Mai’s life on more than one occasion, and in some ways could be credited with turning the tide of the war. After all, if she never betrays Azula, does Azula ever lose her edge? And could Zuko have won an honest agni kai against Azula in her right mind?

Mai would offer them insight alright, but they had no idea what they were asking for.

**Author's Note:**

> I am receptive to feed back but... be gentle? I really am just starting out on actually putting words to paper here.


End file.
